Winter Meetings

This offseason is starting to get rather excruciating. I have a feeling most Angels fans are sharing in this. These winter meetings held so many opportunities:

Teixeira? No, he's still TECHNICALLY up for grabs, but it's looking like the Angels will have to make a much better offer than any other team since it looks like he'd be willing to take a tad less to get him to come to the West Coast. That's a bad sign since the rumors have Boston and Washington both offering him a gajillion dollars for 39 years or something like that. So all the rumors have him not staying in Anaheim when he's the EXACT guy the Angels need. Blargh.

Sabathia? Not really someone the Angels needed, but would have looked nice in their rotation. Well, the good ol' Yankees shot that hope down pretty quick.

Peavy? Apparently the Padres are asking for the best 5 players on your team, plus a sacrifice of the GM's firstborn child just to begin talking. So that's not happening.

Raul Ibanez? Yes please! Let's pursue an aging, slow, bad fielding, declining left fielder looking for a multi-year, $10 million + per year contract. Wait...didn't we have one of those? Wasn't his name Garret Anderson? Didn't we love him? Yes, yes we did. This is idiotic, people. It's true that Ibanez has aged better than Anderson, putting up better OPS's in a tougher park, but then again, who cares about Ibanez? He probably won't outhit Garret by all that much, nor does he carry the added bonus of being the Angels all-time leader in like 29 different categories. WAIT! He's going for 200 career homeruns next year! Uhh, GA's going for 300. WAIT! He's going for 1500 career hits next year! Uhh, GA's going for 2500. Yes, I will begrudgingly admit that he'd be an upgrade over GA, but I contend that when everything gets factored in (defense, baserunning, etc.), it won't be that much of an upgrade. And I love GA. Yeah, it's safe to say that this is idiotic. (EDIT: Ibanez signed today with the Phillies, so thankfully this is not going to happen any more. Dodged a bullet there.)

Manny? Well, as much as I loathe Manny, he's a damn good hitter and would look nice (in hitting terms, not in actual physical appearance) hitting behind Vlad. But the Angels have pretty much said they're not interested. Neither bad nor good I suppose, but that's one less good hitter on the market that the Angels could possibly obtain.

Meanwhile, back at Billy Beane's evil laboratory, the A's have gotten better. They added Holliday and are still working on adding Furcal, although Furcal already rejected one offer from them. Their young guys will probably be better, and even though their pitching staff is a crapload of no-names, Oakland has a way of making those no-names into serviceable pitchers.

Oh, and Texas will probably be better, too. Their pitching can't get worse and they have a lot of young guys coming up who are potentially very good. That's trouble.

Alright alright, I hear you. It's the Christmas season. Let's be jolly and have some good news. Ok here it is:

- The door's not technically closed on Teix. We could still get him.
- There are some decent hitters still out there, although all are terribly flawed in other ways - Adam Dunn (lots of homers, lots of K's and ZERO defense), Milton Bradley (a more talented, more psycho version of Jose Guillen), Pat Burrell (see Adam Dunn but with less homers)
- Our young guys could take significant steps forward next year - Wood, Aybar, Kendrick, Morales, etc.
- Our rotation is still very good and the bullpen should be pretty solid as well, even without K-Rod.
- Whatever else happens, we should be looking at a TON of draft opportunities next year, which will help restock our depleted farm system.

I hope all this turns out okay, but I have to tell you, I'm worried. Arte, if you want to get me a great Christmas present (and I know you do), hand Teixeira a blank check and get it done.